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Brown pressures Galvin on military absentee-ballot deadline

By Evan Lips, elips@lowellsun.com

Updated:
10/06/2012 06:37:54 AM EDT

BOSTON -- Incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown is threatening legal action against Secretary of State William Galvin if he discovers the state isn't complying with a federal law that aims to protect the voting rights of military personnel serving overseas.

The Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, passed by Congress in 2009, requires that absentee ballots be mailed to voters at least 45 days before an election to ensure they are returned and counted in time.

That deadline fell on Sept. 22, a Saturday, meaning Galvin's office was required by law to deliver the ballots to all of the state's 351 town and city clerks by the end of the day.

A survey of town clerks serving Greater Lowell communities showed they met the deadline, but attorney Vincent DeVito of Boston-based Bowditch & Dewey said this week that is still not "within the spirit of the law."

"If they reached those clerks' offices on a Saturday, they're effectively late," he said. "Post offices close early and I can assure you that none of the clerks offices are open on a Saturday."

If the deadline falling on a Saturday is confusing, one aspect is not -- the fact that Sept. 22 is the deadline for ballots to be mailed overseas, not sent to town clerks, DeVito pointed out.

"They've (Galvin's office) known about this since 2008 when they signed a settlement agreement," DeVito said.

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DeVito is referencing the October 2008 agreement with Galvin to "remedy violations of the (2002) Uniformed Overseas Absentee Voting Act," according to a U.S. Department of Justice statement released at the time. The agreement required Galvin's office to "implement procedures to facilitate the collection and reporting of data regarding absentee ballots transmitted."

The Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act is not a law ensuring the ballots are sent overseas on time, rather, it stipulates ballots must be tallied no later than 90 days after a federal election.

But the meat of the challenge from Brown's campaign, according to DeVito, is the hardship waiver in August 2010 Galvin requested from the Federal Voting Assistance Program, a request to waive the 45-day rule. Galvin argued the state could not comply with the 45-day deadline because of timing problems with the state primary. His office was granted the waiver, but DeVito said it's the "pattern of conduct" that has Brown's camp concerned.

"All we're asking is for them to get on top of this," he said.

When word of Brown's threat of legal action first came out in a Sept. 25 Springfield Republican report, Galvin was quoted as calling the lawsuit threat a "political stunt."

Galvin spokesman Brian McNiff, when asked this past week if Brown's action is still perceived as a "political stunt," responded by saying, "I believe you just answered your own question."

McNiff said "all the ballots were in the hands of the communities well within the time required by the federal government."

In Dracut, Town Clerk Kathleen Graham said the overseas ballots reached her office by the deadline and added that she had to mail out two military absentee ballots but managed to mail them before the end of Sept. 22. An assistant added that Brown's campaign had been checking in with the office at least every Wednesday for the past several weeks.

Denise Graffeo, Tewksbury's town clerk, said her office received its allotment of 14 overseas ballots on Sept. 20.

Eric Eversole, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Military Voter Project, said Thursday his organization has discovered what he called a startling statistic -- the number of U.S. military personnel registering for absentee voting has plummeted sharply since the 2008.

Eversole blames the Department of Defense.

He said a "cornerstone" of the 2009 voting law passed by Congress was the creation of installation offices that troops could use for voter registration. The offices would be part of the larger military registration process, almost the same way the registries and departments of motor vehicles operate in each state. A Washington Times report published last month revealed that half of all U.S. military bases worldwide lack legally-required voter registration facilities.

Massachusetts, however, has been recognized by the MVP as one of the best states in the U.S. when it comes to making military voting a priority, Eversole pointed out.

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